


Dororo a sequel

by Kleo_Gonzalez



Category: Dororo (Anime 2019)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, F/M, Heavy Plot, Hurt/Comfort, Imma concentrate more on the story so, all kinds of violence, its not gonna be all about love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2020-06-26 01:28:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19757794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kleo_Gonzalez/pseuds/Kleo_Gonzalez
Summary: This is my version of a possible sequel, taking off from the last chapter from the anime. Life takes more than it gives, to these poor tormented souls, will they be able to one day finally find peace? will they find love along the way? or will revenge and sorrow take over their souls?





	1. A new beggining, a new sorrow

**Author's Note:**

> okay here I am forcing myself to sit and write this because otherwise I never will, wish me luck and no I have no idea where this is going, this is my version of a sequel, taking off from the last chapter from the anime, it will have all kinds of violence and death, so discretion is advised, also all kind of pronouns for Dororo, she/they/him when you read you’ll understand but I gotta write it first!  
> Also also, this is not historically actually at fricking all but I’ll do my best, it's not gonna be betaed and Imma fix the grammar and everything after I finish the fic, also wish me double luck cause english is not my first language, so please be kind.

Hyakkimaru remembers the first time he truly wanted a body and knew the reason why. After he found himself helpless and unable to save Dororo while they slowly drowned.  
The borrowed and fake body he had then, was useless to help the ones he wanted to protect the most.   
The first reason he wanted a body was to protect, during his time with Dororo he learned more things than in his whole life, about want and need, the raw feeling of wanting to see with his own eyes, to touch with his hands, and feel like everybody else, because why shouldn’t he?

When his journey to regain his body was over, he felt everything but fulfilled, everything was overstimulating, and he got very sick the first few weeks after leaving Dororo behind.  
Everything was too much, and above all he felt, lost.   
He had no purpose anymore, no reason to exist, everything is too new and he knows nothing but to kill.   
That’s the main reason he decided to leave Dororo behind and go on a new journey, to discover himself.   
He had killed demons and people, and Hyakkimaru doesn’t even know himself, who is he?   
Aside of a killing machine? Is there more in life for someone like him?

Years had passed since Hyakkimaru had left her behind, she understood why he had done so, now with eighteen years old Dororo hadn’t really changed a lot, maybe her body did, and the way she dressed.  
Even if now she was the head of a small but prosperous village, she still liked to cheat and play around with the villagers, stealing this or that but always giving back when they're not looking. She doesn’t really need to steal anymore, but it’s a good practice, she also learned to use a katana, now her body is strong and is able to wield one with grace, not as perfectly as Hyakkimaru did but the memory of him is what pushes her to keep practicing.  
She grew up to be a fine and beautiful woman, and even if she sometimes acts like that child of before, she’s very well respected by the villagers. She gave them everything after all when they had nothing. They planted beautiful rice, and even if it wasn’t the golden rice she envisioned once, it is enough and she knows that Mio is living in her soul, and she feels her pride when the soft wind makes the rice plants move in the sunset, and she thinks of Hyakkimaru, of what he’s doing if he’s still alive, if he would be proud of the life he got for herself, and if she’ll be able to see him once more. She prays to the gods that she’ll be able to do so, to see him just once would be enough.

And though life is sweet for a while, it rarely gives without taking back, because life is cruel and unpredictable in that period of time in which she had to live.  
It’s a beautiful summer night, when the warm breeze turns into a scorching and infernal heat wave.  
Screams tainted with that distinct tone of doom and horror that she wishes she didn’t know hot to recognize wakes her up in the middle of the night.  
Her first instinct is to grab her Katana and she sloppily ties her hair up before running outside, the first thing she sees looks like a warzone, hell, people running all over the place crying and screaming, houses on fire and the rice field destroyed.t  
This is intentional, this is definitely intentional it’s all Dororo can think, and even if the wild animal in her screams for revenge and yearns for the blood of the ones who caused this, she thinks of her people, the women and the children.  
She runs to the nearest big group of women and men and pushes them away from the fire.

“Run! leave! grab all the children and women you can carry and escape!” She orders.

“We can’t my baby brother is in there!” Answers a small girl with tears on her eyes holding onto her mother’s clothes pointing with a trembling hand to a small house on fire, the adults to horrorized and in shock to even act.

“I’ll go for him, you leave, tell everyone to leave, they can come back when the fire goes out, you’ll die otherwise!” She orders once again and pushes the two men in the group so that they finally move.

Dororo grabs a wet cloth on a bucket by the house on fire that the little girl pointed at, the cloth was probably used to wash the horses because it smelled terrible, but little does she mind while she places it on her head, and runs into the house.  
The heat is overwhelming when she enters, the wood cracking beneath her feet, she closes her eyes and sharpens her ears and there it is, the distinct sound of a baby crying.  
She follows the sound of the sobs, Dororo grabs the soft bundle once she finds him and covers him with the wet cloth she had on her hair, the baby is starting to weep lower and lower, like he’s running out of breath and she prays that he’ll be okay.  
The heat is starting to take a toll on her and she starts coughing while she tries to find the exit, she’s unable to find the door and ends up jumping out of a window instead, some of her clothes and hair catching fire.  
The father and mother had stayed behind with the little girl to wait for Dororo to come out, they help as soon as they see her and pat the fire out of her hair and clothes.

“Koga!” Exclaims the little girl.

“Sweet Koga my child” The mother is quick to take the baby from Dororo’s hands and she cradles him softly against her bosom, “He’s dying…”

“I’m so sorry, I did what I could I…” Stammers Dororo, the knot on her throat making it difficult to speak.

"It’s okay, at least we’ll have his body, thank you” The man speaks holding Dororo’s trembling arm “Oh, you’re hurt”

Dororo touches her face, and indeed there´s blood covering her left eye, but it doesn’t matter because she can hear the hooves of multiple horses stomping the ground and coming towards them, their horses were all taken by villagers, so they weren’t theirs.

“I’m sorry about your child, but you have to run, now!” She orders turning to look at the rice field on fire where the sound was coming from.

“What about you?” The little girl asks, her mother starting to sob louder now that she notices the coldness on her child’s skin.

“I’ll find a place to hide, come on!” She urges them, so they run they run until they’re out of her sight.

Dororo hesitates between running herself, or hiding, maybe she could wait for them right where she is, to do what exactly? Kill them?  
She shakes her head violently and hides between some broken and hot wooden boards on a house that’s almost burned to the ground and the fire’s no more, she’s burning herself, but she can see with perfect clarity the path outside the house.  
First, she hears the voices of the soldiers.

“So this was for nothing after all…” Dororo closes her hand tightly on a fist when she sees them, they’re four of them, how did the cause all this masacre just being four? How did they cheat her own soldiers, well they weren’t trained for war, they were just seven and only for emergencies but still, she closes her eyes tightly thinking of their possible tragic endings.

“There’s nothing here, I saw some women lying on the ground, maybe they’ll do for something” Another voice says, and Dororo bites the inside of her cheek so hard that she can taste her own blood.

“We can take this lands in a few days, but why would lord Asakura want them?”

“The Asakura clan?” A surprised whisper escapes Dororo’s mouth.

“You’re kidding?” Exclaims one of the soldiers, they had stop to talk just a few metres beyond Dororo's hideout. “Look around, look at the soils, they're perfect!”

Suddenly one of the wooden boards in which Dororo was standing breaks, and before the sudden noise could alert the soldiers she runs, she runs and runs untils it gets hard to breathe, and then she runs some more.   
She runs with tears in her eyes and a fire burning in her chest until her knees give out under the strain and falls to her knees.  
Looking at the sky she remembers the pale face of the dying baby and the weeping sobs of a desperate mother and she screams, why? why must this happen?  
The silence of the night won’t answer and the stars look as beautiful as ever above her head, why is the sky still beautiful when she lost everything she worked so hard for?  
When someone once again took everything from her, she cries so much and she’s so exhausted she barely has any strength left in her to climb a tree to sleep in.  
she’ll go to the nearest village, her people are smart, they’ll surely go there first.

Hyakkimaru has been wandering for a while now, he learned so much in this time alone, about people and humanity, and he learned to accept, that a person never truly knows themselves, that humans are always changing and evolving from one form to another according what’s inside their hearts.  
He thought of going back to Dororo, but the truth is, that he doesn’t even know where she is, he went to look for her where he left her, but there was nothing there but the rising people of the Asakura clan.  
He left them be, he had made a decision when he spared his father, he would be human, not a demon, not a monster, not a killing machine.  
Then he travelled for weeks until he found the village in which he’s staying, Hyakkimaru asked around for a boy or girl named Dororo, but nobody knew her, an old man told him, that a small prosperous village had raised out of almost nothing but good soil nearby, and he planned to pay a visit after he rested for a few days.

So the screams that wakes him up on the second night after his arrival came as a surprise, because this village seemed peaceful and kind. He hurried to leave the house but soon came back to grab his two katanas, it’s been a long time but he’s still not used to not having them on him all the time.  
Other people had also come out of their houses to see what was going on, the people that were crying out for help were crying and smelled like smoke, they were mostly women and children, just a few men.

“Please help, my daughter she’s…” A man came to him but he could barely talk between coughs “She was already sick when the fire started”

“I don’t know what, what happened?” Even after all this time he still hasn’t gotten to much better at speaking.

“Some soldiers came and set on fire our village and rice fields, I couldn’t see who they were but they destroyed everything!” A woman said, her faced dusted by the smoke, and clear tears track running down her cheeks.

“We won’t forget this” Hyakkimaru heard a man say.

Soon the people of the village took care of those who were hurt, and offered comfort and a roof over the heads of those who were in shock and in pain. To see such cruelty made by the hands of men. Sometimes he wondered if humanity was even worth it.  
He helped a couple and their daughter to bury their baby son while the sun raised higher and higher in the sky, and took care of the wounds on the man hands made when he rescued their daughter.   
He told him he had to choose between saving his daughter or his son, and Hyakkimaru’s heart broke for the man, he told him that the head of the village tried to rescue him but it was already too late.  
His wife was shaken by the events occurred, she wouldn’t stop shaking and crying during the whole burial ceremony, so Hyakkimaru decided to stay with their daughter while the man comforted her wife, and went to seek medical help.

“What’s your name?” He asked sitting on the steps of the inn he had been staying at, the little girl sitting besides him.

“Akiko” She says quietly, she’s playing with the cloth that the innkeeper gave her to wash herself with.

After all his time with Dororo, he still has no idea what to say to her how to comfort her, in the past he would have grabbed her hands or held her close, but now he knew better than to do so, but he’s still left with nothing to say.

“I won’t forget this” Hyakkimaru hears her say.

“What?” He asks

“I won’t forgive the people who did this, and I’ll grow up one day, and I’ll make them see…” She says her voice hard with determination it reminds him a little bit of the past. “And the lady the one who gave us everything, we left her behind and we don’t know what happened to her” Akiko weeps

“You should have never had to live this…” Mutters Hyakkimaru he still can’t talk right and he’s too slow to make any kind of connections,”If you want, if your people agree, I can go look for her”

“Oh… she’s here!” Exclaims Akiko pointing in the direction of the sun that marks that it’s almost midday. “It's the lady!”

And there, the silhouette of a limping woman walking holding onto a big branch that serves as a cane, Hyakkimaru notices the way she walks in a roughly way almost like a man, then he notices the hair, tied sloppily behind her back, and her eyes, his mouth opens in a silent gasp when he recognizes her, she’s changed so much, but he would recognize those eyes anywhere, those were the first ones he truly saw up close.

"Dororo…”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe this chapter got so fricking loooooong, sorry for that hope you don't mind, anywaays hope you all like it!

Finally she arrives to the village, everything hurts and burns and the blood over her eye left her without sight on it. She wants nothing but to close her eyelids and rest for a long long while, but first she has to assure the safety of her people.  
A little girl comes running towards her and she recognizes her immediately, she drops the improvised cane and picks her up setting her on her left hip.  
She smiles at her softly trying to ignore the tears that threaten to come out of her eyes, and the little girl hugs her neck.

  
“I’m sorry Dororo-San, you got hurt and he couldn’t make it” Sobs Akiko against her neck, Dororo hugs her tightly.

  
“It’s okay, I should have been faster” The little girl denied with her head. “Where is everyone?”

  
“Resting and healing, momma is scared, but dad is taking care of her” She says, holding Dororo’s face between both of her hands, “Thank you”

Dororo wanted to cry, and her lip trembled, she didn’t do anything.She smiled at her before setting her back on the ground, for now she’ll find a place to rest, she’ll wash her face and check the wound on her forehead and burns.  
She only gets to take one step forwards before stopping on her tracks.  
Before her, a sight that she would’ve never imagined to see in a time like this, she used to imagine how would it be when they reunite, would she run into his arms screaming that she missed him? Because she did, or maybe she’d kick him in the face or punch him for leaving her the way he did, and he left her for so long.

Hyakkimaru was standing there in front of her seeming as speechless as she felt, maybe it was a vision, maybe the smoke and the stress made her see things, and it wouldn’t be the first time she hallucinates because of stress.  
And she sees him clenching and unclenching his fists, with eyes open wide, like he can’t believe what he’s seeing either.   
Dororo is suddenly aware of the dirt in her clothes and blood on her face, but she can’t will herself to care, and all her doubts about being a vision disappear when she sees his lips moving.

  
“Do...Dororo” Hyakkimaru says without meaning to, and like a trigger he finds himself striding towards her, he wants to be soft with her, he knows she’s hurt but he can’t control the violence with which he hugs her tight against his body.

  
“Hyakkimaru…” A few seconds of shock go by before she returns the hug as fiercely as she was receiving it, “Where were you all this time?”

  
“I’m sorry for disappearing” He inhales taking in her scent. 

He should’ve gone to the village he heard of as soon as she knew Dororo wasn’t in this one, if he had, maybe none of this would’ve happened or it would’ve ended very differently. Now Dororo has nothing once again, well, she has her people and she has him, when she has nothing, she’ll always have him, even if they’re apart.   
He pushes her away just enough to hold her face between his hands, and like what it seems like centuries ago Hyakkimaru makes their foreheads touch gently, rubbing side by side up and down softly, his own forehead tainting with Dororo’s blood, their noses touching, consumed by all the feelings of the last few hours and the overwhelming feelings of the long awaited but wrong timed reunion, Dororo’s eyes well up and start spilling tears nonstop.

  
Hyakkimaru holds her for a long time, their foreheads touching, then placing her head over his shoulder with a hand on the nape of her head. Impotence, a feeling that Hyakkimaru hasn’t felt in a long time comes crashing on him. There’s absolutely nothing he can do, just hold her for as long as she needs, after a while she finally calms down.

  
“I’m sorry, I’m seeing you again after so long and I’m crying all over you, this is not how I imagined this to go” Mumbles Dororo separating herself from Hyakkimaru’s arms.

  
“It’s okay…” He says distracted by the wounds on Dororo’s face “You’re hurt”

  
“Are you staying somewhere?” She asks “I’d like to wash myself and change my clothes”

  
“I am, follow me” 

Hyakkimaru guides her towards the inn he was staying at, there, the old Innkeeper is quick to recognize her as the head of the neighbour village. He offers her the private bathroom of the inn and some clothes, they’re male clothes and she smiles warmly at the innkeeper when he warns her as if she would deny warm clean clothes just because they’re meant for a man. If he knew, how more comfortable she felt in those clothes instead of the ones she wore everyday to maintain a good image at her village.

She washes her clothes but decides to throw them away for they are too damaged to keep. Dororo cleans herself off the blood and ashes on her body, discovering new blisters on her hands and feet, even near her neck where her hair was set on fire.  
Under her clothes her skin was red in some places, where her clothes also caught fire, she bandaged her forehead hands and feet, and cut the pieces on her hair that were damaged and burned by the fire, luckily they weren’t too many.

  
Dororo sighs when she’s finished, she’s so tired and feels like she’s dreaming, her village got destroyed by the Asakura and Hyakkimaru’s back.  
She wants to forget about everything and go back with Hyakkimaru and pretend all those years never happened in the first place.  
She wants to shake herself the moment she thinks of that, she learned a lot during those years, and the truth is that not everything was easy, being the head of the village took lots of responsibilities and it even felt overwhelming sometimes, but still she was happy during those years, or that’s what she liked to think, she had everything she could’ve needed and she was able to provide to the people who then needed it the most.  
But now once again, they have nothing, at least she has Hyakkimaru now, and they can figure out what to do together.

The innkeeper had offered her the master room, but she prefered to stay with Hyakkimaru for old times sake. Even if she doesn’t want to talk right now, and doesn’t even know where to start. There were so many things she wanted to tell him, so many stories, but she was left with nothing, Dororo wondered if Hyakkimaru would have some stories of his own.

Hyakkimaru was patiently sitting against the farthest wall when Dororo came in, he’s quick to stand up when she enters the room, he doesn’t know why he does that, they look at each other quietly for a while.

Hyakkimaru had arranged the futon that the innkeeper brought for Dororo, he didn’t ask questions but he did look at Hyakkimaru up and down a couple times.

“What am I going to do?” Asks in a helpless voice Dororo.

  
“You should rest” Hyakkimaru walks towards her and grabs her arm gently to pusher to her futon, but Dororo is having none of that.

  
“I don’t think I can” Actually she’s sure she’ll fall asleep the moment she closes her eyes, but she’s also sure that a thousand nightmares are waiting for her. “I’m going to talk with my people tomorrow, well the surviving ones, and we’re going to think about what course to take together”

  
“You barely sound like yourself” The words escape Hyakkimaru’s mouth without meaning to, he doesn’t want to hurt her, but she seemed to have changed so much, she always was kind of a leader but now…

  
“It’s been a long time huh?” She answers, she has a hundred responsibilities now, and she’s also afraid of having lost herself a little bit along the way, “I’m still me, it’s just this happened now and…”

  
“I understand” He says because he does, he truly does, he insists once again and softly pushes Dororo towards her futon, she looks exhausted.

  
“Tell me about your journey” She says walking herself towards her own futon.

Hyakkimaru looks at her silently but nods after a while, they lie down, Dororo’s nervously playing with the covers scared of falling asleep while she waits for Hyakkimaru to start talking.    
He’s wondering where to even start, but Dororo’s shaken so he chooses a story that he knows she would like; about a woman named Kaiyo, when Hyakkimaru arrived to the village where she lived, he was just passing by but he heard some villagers complaining about a demon they called Kodokuna oni so he decided to investigate a little bit.   
The people said it presented itself as a weeping little girl, dirty and with blood on her sleeves, they could hear her sometimes crying for her big brother and saying that she’s lonely without him, and when unsuspected people go to help her she transformes herself into a huge drooling wolf and asks for her dear brother once more before eating the hearts out of their bodies, they had found two bodies in three days.   
So Hyakkimaru decided to stay, the woman named Kaiyo offered him a place to stay, during two nights he hunted the demon through the village streets but it was nowhere to be found.   
Hyakkimaru didn’t talk too much, but he helped her with the food and the horses, she was a lonely woman in her middle thirties.

Kaiyo talked enough for both of them, on the night of the second day she confessed,¿ that she used to live with her brother, and that they were very united because their parents had died when they were very young, their grandmother had taken care of them before she also died, she told him that when she was young and naive she dreamed of marrying a wealthy man that was able to provide for her and her brother, that she used to dream of her brother being with her during every step of the way, but on the whim of fate none of that happened, she didn’t tell him why, nor he asked for more information.   
On the fourth night of his stay on Kaiyo’s house he finally heard the cries of a little girl, they sounded desperate, the pain on her voice was enough to break anyone’s heart, he almost felt pity for the demon but a demon it was, so Hyakkimaru grabbed both of his katana and jumped out of a window, set on killing the demon, unaware of Kaiyo’s presence following him.

Soon he was facing the demon, the little girl’s back facing him, it was so different seeing demons now that he has both his eyes, if he didn’t know the story, he would’ve definitely fallen for her hoax.   
  


“Brother? Is that you brother?” She cried, a hand extending to him while she turned to face him “I’ve been so lonely”

  
Hyakkimaru is quick to grab one of his katana, and stands in a guarding position, for some reason he’s unable to kill the demon while it has the form of a little girl.  
The demon notices his intentions and slowly her face and hands morphs in a horrible way while crying out, slowly and like the sight of a nightmare she turns into the big drooling wolf the villagers talked about.

The fight starts, Hyakkimaru tries to attack, but he’s soon too busy to do so, because the demon is vicious and tries to bite him and hurt him with his claws, so fiercely and ruthless that Hyakkimaru is unable to do anything but dodge and block with his katana, the demon even bites one of his arms but Hyakkimaru is able to make the demon release him by piercing one of it’s paws with the katana.

“Stop!” He hears a woman scream, unexpectedly the demon stops and turns into the little girl again, with a swift move he tries to stab his neck.

  
“Stop!” The woman cries out again, and weirdly, he does and watches as the little girl turns to face the woman, and Hyakkimaru turns too, it was Kaiyo standing behind him.

  
“Please, I’ve been so lonely, where’s my brother?” The little girl asks her, tears on streaming down her face, Hyakkimaru aims at the demon once again when she starts to morph once again into the wolf.

  
“Suzume, your name is Suzume?” Kaiyo asks hesitantly, the demon stops crying and looks at her with wide eyes “I knew it…”

  
“What’s happening?” Asks confused Hyakkimaru, one second the demon was viciously trying to kill him and now…

“My brother and I were too young when it happened but my granny once told me that she had seen a little girl, with the most beautiful big eyes but that she lived on the streets, and was malnourished and dirty” Kaiyo starts talking softly, Hyakkimaru couldn’t exactly tell if it was compassion what he heard in her voice “She told me that she had seen her with a boy who called her Suzume and that they were always asking for food to the villagers, she wanted to help her but we barely had what to eat ourselves back then, soon after she told me that story I asked again for the little girl, my granny didn’t want to tell me what had happened with her.” 

  
“I was killed, it was just my brother and I when my parents died, we were so hungry and nobody helped us, one day he tried to find some food, he said it was for me because I was sick, and he never came back, I found him dead on the garbage, I died of hunger!” The girl starts talking quietly as a small bird but gains force with every word full of pain and wrath, so full of hate.

  
“Shh, you know what?” Asks Kaiyo to the little demon “My brother died too you know, when he turned nineteen he went to help a little girl that was crying at night during the celebration, and he never came back, I had my doubts but, it was definitely you”

  
“Why didn’t you let him kill me” The demon asks.

  
“Because I don’t hate you” Kaiyo answers simply

  
“Why?” The demon looks so confused, and Hyakkimaru is confused too, why wouldn’t the woman hate the demon that killed her so beloved brother, “You should”

  
“Because he died trying to help someone and that was the kind of person my brother was, and I loved him so much for that and he lives in my heart, he kept his essence until his very last breath I’m sure of that” Hyakkimaru shivers in reverence at the pureness and intensity of the love in Kaiyo’s words, “So no, I don’t resent you even if I’m in hurting so much, I don’t think my brother would’ve wanted me to, you’re in pain as I am, life has been unkind to us, your brother died trying to take care of you and protect you, do you think he would’ve wanted this for you?”

The demon weeps once again, Hyakkimaru stands in front of Kaiyo to protect her, the demons seems unstable, and cries out in full force tears streaming down her face.   
Face morphing between the one of the little girl and a wolf once again, she was repeating again and again a word he couldn’t pick out.  
The demon was a howling wolf once again growling and moaning in pain, something was moving in it’s chest, like something was trying to escape from it, the wolf clawed again and again at his chest ripping off flesh and fur.

  
“Mamoru!” Finally Hyakkimaru recognized what the demon said.

The wolf growled, and from it’s chest where it was clawing at a sparrow came out, it was glowing in yellow, it flew to the starry sky and disappeared in a burst of light, the corpse of the wolf rapidly decayed.  
Neither Kaiyo nor Hyakkimaru emitted a word for some time.

  
“So that’s what her brother’s name was…” Kaiyo murmured after a while, “Well, we should do something about those wounds of yours”

Kaiyo tended to his wounds, and let him stay until he recovered, Hyakkimaru will never forget what he learned that night.  
When he finishes telling his story, he turns in his futon to see if Dororo’s still awake, he didn’t expect her to be, but she is, barely so but she is.

  
“That’s...that’s a very good story” She says, “You got very good at telling stories you know that?”

  
“Thank you…” 

Dororo inches a little bit closer to the edge of her futon to get closer to Hyakkimaru’s, their futons are separated by a meter or so, Hyakkimaru imitates her.  
Dororo fights the urge to extend a hand towards him and clenches the covers instead, they fall asleep like that, making eye contact until their eyes close exhausted.

The next day Hyakkimaru accompanies her to talk with the villagers, they make an improvised assembly with the surviving adults.   
Dororo doesn’t seem nervous at all, like she’s used to this kind of meeting, her head is held high, chin up waiting for her people to settle, they look miserable and angry.

  
“Today we are here because we’ve been assaulted and robbed of everything by the Asakura” She starts, the people agitate, and angry murmurs start to be heard “Settle down my people, I understand you’re indignated and hurt, because I am myself, but we need to think with a cold head now and take a decision together”

  
The meeting goes for quite a while, nobody opposes nor asks about Hyakkimaru’s presence besides Dororo. Some of the villagers wanted to stay were they were and build a life in this village they found refuge in, but most of them wanted to go back to the lands were they had truly been happy, but if there was something they all agreed in, it’s that they wanted revenge.  
They wanted the ones who responsible for the massacre of their family and friends, the responsibles of the destroyment of their lands and home, to pay for what they’d done.  
Dororo on the other hand was debated between restoring what they’d left with the rest of the money she had hidden, or seeking revenge as well.  
The villagers argue between themselves while Dororo struggles thinking of what she should do.

  
“Dororo…” Hyakkimaru whispers softly watching her as she bites on the skin near her nails, she glances at him for a couple of seconds with an expression he’s unable to decipher, Dororo shuts her eyes tightly furrowing her eyebrows before speaking again with determination.

  
“Settle down please” Dororo’s voice manages to sound kind but firm, “I know you don’t pretend to take down the whole Asakura clan, just the responsible ones, but all of you are hurt in some way or another, as the head of the village, I promise to chase and take down the ones who did this to us, they’re going to pay for this”

  
The people exclaim different words of agreement, the indignation and hurt it’s too much.  
Hyakkimaru is surprised at Dororo’s decision but he can see the inner turmoil inside her, she doesn’t really want to do this but she will for her people. A mix of pride and sympathy tangle in his chest.

  
“We will ask for the people of this village refuge for you until I come back, and when I do we’ll focus on rebuilding what was lost and reclaim what is ours or we could establish ourselves somewhere else, but will see when the time comes, do you all agree with the resolution taken?” She asks.

  
The people throw exclamations of agreement, and talk excitedly between themselves about the future that they may be able to have, they talk about the kindness of Dororo and her strength, she shuts her heart to their comments for she knows the truth.  
Dororo declares the assembly finished and the people disperse, not all of the surviving ones were there some of them were too injured to, but the majority of them were here and that was enough.

  
They walk back to the inn in silence, Hyakkimaru wants to support her in some way but the only way he can think of is holding on to one of her sleeves.  
She smiles tiredly at him noticing what he was trying to convey and holds onto his sleeve reciprocating and acknowledging the feeling.  
Dororo collapses on her futon when they get into the darkened room, the air smelled of rain and wind was starting to rise outside like a dark omen, Hyakkimaru sits besides her and watches as she covers her eyes with her arm.

  
“Why does it have to be me?” She says so softly Hyakkimaru can barely understand, but he does.

  
“I’m sorry…” He says.

  
“No it’s not your fault,” She says while sitting up facing him, she bites her lip in a worried and nervous gesture “Hyakkimaru, would you… would you please come with me?”

  
“Of course I’ll be there, from now on I’ll always be by your side”


	3. Serpent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> umm hi, I noticed I didn't give last ep a name and it will stay like that ups, I took this long cause english it's not my first language and I got scared with grammar and It takes a while to write and I just keep procastinating and the two careers Im doing and maybe it was just an excuse cause panic! and somehow it took me far too long to just sit and write anyways, thank you so much if you keep reading!

The next day Dororo and Hyakkimaru got ready to go to the burnt village first thing in the morning, some of the surviving people insisted on going with them, they all had precious objects that they wanted to retrieve, along with food and other sources that could’ve survived the fire. Other’s just wanted to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones to give them a proper burial.  
On the way out the little girl Akiko stops them holding onto Dororo’s sleeve, she motions with an arm to the villagers to go on without them.

  
“Take me with you!” Akiko demands passionately

  
“What?” Dororo’s confused for a couple seconds before understanding Akiko’s intentions “Akiko is too dangerous, you’re too young and you have a lot to live for”

  
“They killed my baby brother and destroyed my family!” She explodes, Akiko looks at Hyakkimaru when she senses that Dororo won’t let her tag along, but he denies softly with his head too “I want justice for my brother, I know you’re going for those soldiers, let me do something!”

“Akiko this is a very dangerous thing that we’re going to do, and to be honest I’m not too sure about doing it myself but I will because it’s our people’s will” Dororo confesses softly as she kneels to be the same height as the little girl “It’s too dangerous for me and even more for you”

  
“We all know what you did with him, everyone does and you were younger than me!” Insists as she clings to her clothes once again, tears were welling up in her eyes while frustration builds up.

  
“I had nothing then, absolutely nothing, no family no friends no place to sleep, nothing to hold on but a very cruel past, then I found him” She explains to the little girl voice sweetened and nostalgic as she talks and points with her thumb to the place where Dororo knows Hyakkimaru is standing behind her, “Think about your family, you still have them, how would your mother feel when she wakes up and finds you gone, you still have them and a warm place to rest and food to take to your mouth”

“But...but” Her lip wobbles as her resolve starts to crumble.  
  


“I’ll get the justice your brother deserves” Dororo assures.  
  


“You promise?” Akiko asks eyes big and bright as she looks at Dororo.

“I promise” Dororo answers lifting her hand and placing it on her chest.

Akiko slams herself towards Dororo’s body almost pushing her to the ground with the fierceness of her hug, Hyakkimaru places a hand on Dororo’s shoulder to prevent them from falling. They part ways and Akiko watches them leave and getting smaller in the horizon as the sun slowly rises in front of them.

When they arrive to the village, it looks far worse than that night, the crops are ultimated but somehow the soils look good, the air smells like smoke and burnt flesh.  
Dororo stops in her track numb as she watches the people walking like zombies between the ashes in search for something they only know that it is.

  
“Dororo”Hyakkimaru calls, “You told me you saw them, where was it?”

  
"Oh, over there” Hyakkimaru’s voice snaps her out of her trance, and she shakes her head to regain her composure, Hyakkimaru crouches on the ground analyzing the area,”Do you see something?”

  
“Yes, can you see this?” He asks looking up towards her, Dororo denies with her head, “The ashes are raised in some areas, it’s not the villagers foot prints, those are more visible than this ones, this are older”

  
“Do you think it’s them?” She asks her heart jumps a little bit, nervous and somehow excited, the sooner they deal with this the better.

“Definitely”Answers with determination, they share a look before following the path.

  
The footprints take them far away into a forest where the mud makes the footprints easier to follow and see.  
Dororo gets distracted and forgets for a while what they’re doing there, for a moment they’re the same Hyakkimaru and Dororo from those times but that would mean that she would still be young, naive and careless, and Hyakkimaru would still have a borrowed body.  
Dororo looks at him as they walk, he didn’t change much since the last time she saw him, he looks comfortable in his body that’s for sure, and his gaze is intense as back then when Hyakkimaru looks back at her questioning when he senses her eyes on him, Dororo quickly turns her gaze away, but deems it a ridiculous action and turns back at Hyakkimaru smiling widely at him, she hasn’t had the chance to tell him how glad she is that he’s here, Hyakkimaru’s lips turn slightly upwards too.

  
A scream breaks the atmosphere, it echoes in between the trees, it’s human and desperate you can distinguish the air escaping whomever the screams belongs to, Dororo gets closer to Hyakkimaru instinctively as she holds her sword’s handle and clenches it with her fist.  
Hyakkimaru also grabs the handles of his katanas defensively.

  
“What was that?” Asks quietly Dororo “We should... we should go see”

  
Hyakkimaru nods with a sound, they start walking cautiously towards where the scream came from, they could soon hear some voices talking, and laughs, so unlike the scream they just heard, soon they could see them too, with just a glance they decided to hide behind some trees to look at the four horseman that were laughing as a creature ate a man before them, the sight was enough to fuel nightmares for years, but both Dororo and Hyakkimaru had seen enough in their lives to be fazed by the sight. What put Dororo on edge on the other hand, was that the four men before her were the ones responsible for burning her village.

  
“So he thought he could steal from us!?” Laughed one of them grabbing his belly “What a joke!”

  
“We should leave, do you have that thing?” Other asked he looked more sober than the other tree, he was bald and had a curly beard “I have the other one but the general would obliterate us if we lose one of them”

  
“Stop worrying Hisoka, I have it” The one who was laughing the most answered.

  
Suddenly the creature that was eating the man stopped and turned it’s serpent eyes towards them, they had been discovered.  
The creature growls as it’s body raises almost as tall as the trees, it’s scales are white and pink and from it’s fangs a violet substance drips along with the blood of the man.

  
“Who is there?” The man called Hisoka demands to know, “Come on out now, you’ll die anyways”

  
Hyakkimaru walks towards the men as Dororo panics still hidden behind the trees, she debates between staying hidden or walk forward with Hyakkimaru, in the end she walks quickly to stand by him, it’s been a long time since she’s been in this kind of situation.

  
“So who are you boys?” Hisoka asks.

  
“Who cares!” Spats the one of spiky hair, “They’ve seen enough, they must die!”

  
“Shut up Kanaye!” Other one of them answers, his hair is long almost as long as Hyakkimaru’s “We can’t kill people just because”

  
“What would you call what you did last night with my village then?!” Dororo shouts at them angrily, her voice turning lower indignated, she takes out her katana but Hyakkimaru holds her by the shoulder to prevent her from making a rash decision.

  
“Oh” The one who was laughing first suddenly interested, intervenes, “Who are you boy?”

  
“Shut up” Hyakkimaru stands in front of Dororo taking his katanas in a swift movement.

  
“Is this your bodyguard? You can’t fight your own fights like a man?” The man does a gesture with his hand and two of them leave, now it’s just him and the man with the long hair. “The same way you couldn’t protect your own village?”

Dororo winces but she shakes her head refusing to be hurt by this despicable man words, the demon just growled at them, somehow it wouldn’t hurt them, and it didn’t look interested in the other two men either.

  
“Im Leiko by the way” The man comments casually ignoring the situation with a hand resting on his hip “And the guy with the long hair is Katashi”

  
“Nice! But we didn’t ask ash licker!” Dororo spats venomously

  
“Ash licker” Repeats the man amused, “That’s a new one, but I'm not the one who let their own village burn to the ground”

  
“I said shut up!”Hyakkimaru intervenes once again at the man’s cruel words.

  
Hyakkimaru runs to him ready to fight, but Leiko seems to be quite good at swordsmanship, he stops Hyakkimaru’s katanas with ease.  
Leiko makes some attacks of his own but none are able to hurt Hyakkimaru, Dororo wants to help but she knows that right now she’ll get in the way of Hyakkimaru.

She analyses the creature instead, the serpent had started eating the man once again, it seems that now it was trying to eat the body whole, it’s eyes look vacant and tired; Dororo wonders why does it respond to them.  
The back of the creature is exposed to her for a second and Dororo is able to see on it’s back something that maybe once were wings, burnt and torn apart, she winces in sympathy for she knows that it was caused by this monsters that call themselves men.  
She takes a step towards it and the serpent snaps it’s head back to her, for a second it looks like it’s afraid but it soon starts hissing and growling when it notices it’s her.

An arrow almost hits her feet her heart jumps on her chest and she turns on her feet to look back to the man that shoot it, Katashi, his eyes firm on her and another arrow ready to shoot if she gets closer to the creature once again.  
A pained moan makes her turn towards the fight once again and she let herself smirk when she sees that Hyakkimaru sliced two fingers off his opponent.

  
“Quit playing games Leiko!” Demands Katashi.

“I know shut up!” Leiko snaps back, he looks tired and pained sweat accumulating above his brow.

  
Katashi lowers his bow and Dororo’s tempted to attack him but it’s a bad idea, it’s better if she learns a little more about the situation they’re in, for example right now looking at Hyakkimaru and Leiko fight she notices a hanging pouch on Leiko’s hip, it looks like he’s trying to protect that side in particular.

  
“Hyakkimaru!” She calls “Aim for the bag I think it’s important!”

“Shit” Leiko tries to protect it quickly and in his desperation to do it Hyakkimaru hurts his arm again.

But the creature screams wildly, Dororo has to cover her ears, all of them do, the creature slithers fast as lightning between the two men sending Hyakkimaru flying towards a tree, the air is knocked out of his lungs when he hits it but he gets up quickly enough.  
Dororo runs after the two men when they start running away with their tail between their legs, -it was important after all- thinks Dororo, the creature slithers along with them.

Dororo throws her katana as a spear with all her strength hoping to get one of them and she does, her katana ends up on Leiko’s upper leg, he shouts in pain and quickly removes it as he limps away, blood pours from the wound staining his clothes.

“Give it to me!” Katashi demands

They look frantic as Leiko throws the bag at him before collapsing to the ground, the demonic serpent tries to catch it but it’s too big to maneuver fast enough between the trees to get to the bag before Katashi, who gives a triumphant laugh before climbing the creature as he owns it and gives it and order they cannot hear, the serpent grabs Leiko’s collapsed body between his jaws gently before slithering away.

  
“Are you okay?” Asks Dororo walking up to Hyakkimaru.

  
“I am” Dororo sighs heavily, she has to get used to this things again, her heart is still beating wildly between her ribs and her breath is quick as Hyakkimaru´s.

  
“Do you think he’ll survive?” Hyakkimaru doesn’t answer, but she’s sure that Leiko will live, even if he lacks a couple of fingers and his arm and leg are injured they’re not bad enough for him to die, “How do they control it?”

  
“I think the bag has something that belongs to it, I think they control it with whatever it is on that bag” Hyakkimaru answers, his brow furrows deeply in thought, he retrieves Dororo’s katana and hands it to her.

  
“I think we should rest for now, we can think about what to do later” 

**Author's Note:**

> We started strongly huh? I hope you liked it!! I'll write as soon as I can! Also Im open to all kind of suggestions!


End file.
